Detroit Lions OC Candidate: Exploring pros and cons of Ravens QB coach Tee Martin
This is our fourth piece in what will be an ongoing series, evaluating the pros and cons of the offensive coordinator candidates connected to the Detroit Lions’ vacancy.
Who: Tee Martin
Age: 47
Background and coaching history: For those old enough to witness it, our first memory of Martin was taking over as the University of Tennessee’s starting quarterback after Peyton Manning went to the NFL, and accomplishing something his predecessor couldn’t, leading the Vols to a National Championship in 1998.
Martin’s pro career was far less memorable. A fifth-round pick for Pittsburgh in 2000, he had stints with three NFL teams, the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe, as well as the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers across five years before calling it a career.
Martin quickly transitioned into coaching, beginning with an unpaid position as a passing game coordinator at Morehouse College in Atlanta, followed by a season each at two area high schools as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
In 2009, Martin turned down a chance to join Chip Kelly’s staff at Oregon as a receivers coach, opting to return to the college ranks to work with the quarterbacks at New Mexico.
"Now, I feel like an idiot,” Martin told ESPN in 2016 about that decision. “But at the time, I felt like that's what I know. I knew I could coach quarterbacks.”
The Lobos went 1-11 that season, and Martin moved on, joining Joker Phillips’ staff at Kentucky, where Martin’s former offensive coordinator at Tennessee, Randy Sanders, had taken the same job at Kentucky.
Martin spent two years with the Wildcats before jumping to USC, joining Kiffin’s staff as a receivers coach. Martin would stay at the school for seven years, working for three different head coaches and earning a coordinator role for the first time in his career.
Helming USC’s offense, Martin had a lot of success his first two seasons, working with quarterback Sam Darnold and future NFL skill players such as Michael Pittman and JuJu Smith-Schuster. The team won double-digit games each of those seasons, finishing the 2016 campaign ranked No. 3.
Things sharply declined after Darnold went to the NFL, and after a 5-7 season, the team’s worst in 18 years, much of the staff, including Martin, was let go.
Martin quickly landed on his feet, returning to his alma mater as a receivers coach and assistant head coach. But again, overall struggles led to coaching changes, resulting in another move, this time to the NFL.
Martin joined the Baltimore Ravens in 2021, where he’s been since. He started as a receivers coach before transitioning to the quarterback room to work with superstar Lamar Jackson for the past three years. The pairing resulted in an MVP campaign in 2023 and an even better statistical season in 2024, where Jackson finished second for the award.
Why he’d be a fit
There’s a grittiness about Martin’s coaching path that would mesh well in Detroit. He had to scratch and claw for his opportunities, starting with an unpaid position and high school jobs, learning from mistakes about getting out of his comfort zone, and grinding his way up the ladder through multiple coaching changes at USC.